History’s written pages correspond to life experiences while its white pages correspond to thing to be lived. In terms of Turkish – Armenian relationships, we face our destiny, that has been lived for centuries and will live for centuries, once again.

Our ancestors filled their pages in the past somehow. The question is; how can we fill those white pages today? Will we act as the ones who were responsible for the disaster experienced in the past or will we write those white pages, convenient for modern human, by taking lesson from those mistakes?

This is the greatest liability we’ve ever faced. Those who avoid fulfilling that responsibility, in fact, are the ones who are not different from the people who were responsible for that disaster. We, who feel responsible, should never let them do it. We should write these pages and prevent them from doing it.

Hrant Dink, 2010

*This series emerged as a result of my journeys to Gymri and Yerevan in 2009-2010. I was invited to participate in Galata Photography House and Hrant Dink Foundation’s joint multimedia project titled “Beyond Waiting…//Beklemekten Öte…”. 5 Armenian and 5 Turkish photographers came together in a workshop to run a joint project and develop dialogue, and 5 different multimedia series emerged as a result. We’ve carried out the project “Voice of Border//Sınırın Sesi” together with Anushla Babajanyan. For more information on the project: Bayandur, Sound of the Border

*The aforementioned series consists of my street photographs taken in Yerevan and Gymri as a part of the project. I’ve came across this unique piece by Hrant Dink while writing for this series, and included it herein. I sincerely hope that the voices of people in these two nations that are soclose yet made so distant, remove the borders.

*Published with the permission of International Hrant Dink Foundation.